The Wash to the Humber Estuary

The coastal area of Eastern England between The Wash and the Humber Estuary covers the county of Lincolnshire. Effectively, this means from Skegness, in the south to Grimsby and Immingham in the mouth of the Humber to the north. You could be forgiven for thinking that this area would not be too attractive for divers. You would be wrong.

The area boasts an active group of 16 clubs that have banded themselves into The Lincolnshire Association of Sub-Aqua Clubs comprising the following clubs:
Brigham, Boston, Boston Snorkellers, Cottesmore, Grantham, Lincoln & District, Lincolnshire Youth, Lincs Divers, Mansfield, Misterton, Newark, Sceptre, Skegness, Splading, Viking Divers and Waddington.
They hold monthly meetings and run their own Advanced Diver lectures and a full programme of Skill Development courses.

So there are obviously plenty of local divers but what does the area offer to the visiting diver? The southern part of the coastline is the main holiday area, with the towns of Skegness, Ingoldmells, Chapel St Leonards and Mablethorpe. This area has all of the usual holiday accommodation and facilities, although you will need to share it with holidaymakers in the main summer season. So a degree of forward planning is required - likewise with parking alongside the coast.

The northern coast is more industrial, with places like Grimsby and Immingham having fishing harbours and docks. The Humber estuary itself is a main shipping channel - the Hull to Rotterdam / Zeebrugge ferry services use it. Not a good place to be a diver floating at the surface at the end of a dive.

Travelling to the area, from other parts of the country brings with it the usual issues of travelling east-west in England. From the north, the M1 or M62 motorways lead to the M18 / M180 and then to the A180, which will bring you to Immingham or Grimsby. From the south, the A1(M) leads to the A16 via Spalding to Boston. Alternatively use the A46 to Lincoln and then across country to the coast.

Diving in the North Sea has always been considered to be very weather dependent, particularly if you are intending to venture a long way offshore. When planning your trip, information regarding weather and sea conditions can be found at http://www.ybw.com/weather/home.html and http://www.btx.co.uk/buoys.htm

For offshore sites slack water is generally about 3 hours after high or low water. Tides and currents can be fierce and the slack window can be short. Coastal sites generally are less sensitive to tidal flow, but on this part of the coast, shore dives are few and far between. It is said that Yorkshire/Lincolnshire and the Humber approaches have more wrecks in sensible diving depths than anywhere else in the UK. The trick seems to be that you need access to a local who knows when to dive and where to look.

Dive shops and air fill stations are also a bit thin on the ground - no doubt the local clubs use their own compressors.

When the weather is less favourable, the locals tend to venture inland, to Gildenburgh (near Peterborough) or Stoney Cove (in Leicestershire, near Hinckley) - see separate trip reports for more information.

Everything you ever wanted to know about things to do, where to stay and places to eat can be found on the Visit Lincolnshire site from information on the RAF Red Arrows aerobatic display team, which is based in the county, to a walk-through tour of Lincoln Cathedral, as well as an accommodation finder that allows you to search by town and by category (camping, guesthouse, hotel etc etc).

The Lincolnshire coat is covered by Ordnance Survey Landranger maps (1:50,000) 113 and 122. Admiralty Charts of the area are 107 (Approaches to the River Humber), 108 (Approaches to the Wash) and 1200 (The Wash Ports)

If you intending to take your own boat to the area, you may find "Tidal Havens of the Wash and Humber" by Henry Irving a useful book (ISBN 085288 507 5)

UK DIVE GUIDES Books and guides to help you plan, and to take with you - buy on-line.

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